Improve your English: transition words

transition (noun) passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

From Latin transire ‘go across’ or ‘pass over’.

What are transition words?

Whatever your goal or purpose for your writing – whether it’s to explain, inform, entertain or persuade – you need to express yourself fluently, and you need to present your readers with a cohesive text that carries them easily from idea to idea, and from beginning to end.

Transition words (or linking words) are the important words and phrases that will make your writing flow.

They link your sentences and paragraphs and connect your ideas, and they help you build logical and coherent arguments by pointing your reader towards each successive stage of your argument.

Summarising or concluding

Hi, I'm Angela, the creator of the Botanical Linguist site. I'm a freelance writer, linguist, and qualified English language teacher. I specialize in writing online course content, and blog posts and articles about business, education, and the English language. I’m also a writing coach for non-native users of English who want to blog better in English.

Brilliant post Angela! Transition words are often the weak link in people’s writing and I love the way you have categorized them for handy reference.
Botany and English – interesting!Dave from ProofAndFormat.com recently posted..How Well Do You Think You Know Grammar?

I really like your list of transitional words, Angela!
One issue I run into when writing is finding a wider range of like words to express the connection so I can avoid using the same ones over and over. This article gave me more word ideas to use for those transitions… thanks 🙂Michel Snook recently posted..My Rapid Mailer Plugin ReviewTwitter: michelsnook

Gosh, where would we be without these transition words, we wouldn’t be able to think logically and in a flowing, structured way. Seeing the words in a list like this makes me realise how much I use them.Judy recently posted..What do you miss?Twitter: freefromwithatt

Yes, they’re very useful expressions indeed. Most of the time we use them without thinking about it, but they’re so important for getting our meaning across that it’s worth using them more in a more planned or structured way when the need arises.

This is a great collection of alternative ways to express oneself. It is so easy to use the same phrases. It is a great idea to wider the focus and mix it up a little with terms or phrases that don’t get used as often.

What a perfect timing Angela! Thank you so much, I just printed your list out as I’ve switched my blogging from French to English in May (both languages are not my mother tongue) – and this is sooo valuable as we’re publishing daily now :).

You made my day – and I love flowers above all – the ‘Botanical Linguist’ very much resonates with me.